What Does 1 Chronicles 17:15 Mean?
According to all these words, and according to all this sight, so did Nathan speak to David.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both the words and Nathan’s speaking, revealing that the vision reaches David through speech shaped by what was seen.
THE MEANING
Here, speech takes its measure from both the words and the vision: what is seen becomes something spoken to David. Nathan (נָתָן, Natan, “he gave”) speaks to David (דָּוִיד, David, “beloved”), a giving that reaches the beloved.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word or matter.
“words / speak” in this verse is devarim. “Words” and “speak” share the root דבר, joining what is said to the act of saying it. The vision is carried in speech whose shape is measured by the words themselves.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same root holds both spoken words and the matter those words carry.
dibber: He spoke or uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb used for Nathan’s speaking, directly echoing the root of “words.”
חָזוֹן
chazon
GROWS FROM
חזה
To see or behold.
“sight” in this verse is chazon. A vision is something seen, not merely an idea imagined. Paired with speech from דבר, it moves from perception into words that can be shared.
ALSO GROWS
chazah: To see or behold.
חָזָה
The noun “vision” grows from the act of seeing.
chozeh: A seer; one who sees.
חֹזֶה
This branch makes the vision’s link to a perceiving person visible.
דָּוִיד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
Beloved; one dearly loved.
David’s name echoes דּוֹד (dod), “beloved.” The verse’s words and vision reach a recipient whose name carries the nature of the beloved.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also uncle in some contexts.
דּוֹד
This is the root associated with David’s name and its sense of being beloved.
dodim: Love or expressions of affection.
דֹּדִים
This related form extends the root’s association with love.
THE PATTERN
What is seen becomes shareable when words give it faithful shape.
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tablets, so that the one who calls it out may run.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have perceived and heard.The prophet who has a dream, let him recount a dream; and whoever has my word, let him speak my word in truth. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.THE THREAD
Then the LORD stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Look, I have set my words in your mouth.“Words” in both verses comes from דבר, the same root that forms the verb “speak.” Jeremiah’s words are placed in his mouth; Nathan’s speech, in turn, is measured by the words and vision he carries.
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